In our #Working3D interview series, we delve into fascinating careers in the additive manufacturing (AM) landscape. Our latest installment explores the integration of AM into product design, featuring insights from Alex Kimber, the founder of AKD, an industrial design studio devoted to digital manufacturing. AKD embraces both maker culture and professional design, focusing on product design for digital manufacturing technologies. Alex shares his methodology, the daily challenges he encounters, the essence of being an industrial designer, and his personal motivations.
3DN: Could you introduce yourself?
My name is Alex Kimber. I reside in London and work as an industrial designer with a special interest in digital fabrication and distributed design. I manage my design studio, AKD, and collaborate with the lighting manufacturer Aktiva, focusing on additive manufacturing. My background includes a longstanding engagement with the maker movement, and I am passionate about integrating the discipline of professional industrial design into open source hardware, local production, and bespoke design. My approach aims to decentralize design in a responsible and sustainable manner. Throughout my career, I have embarked on various entrepreneurial ventures and worked as a design engineer in architectural glazing. I hold an MSc in Design and Innovation from the Technical University of Denmark and a BSc in Product Design Engineering from Brunel University.
With his design studio AKD, Alex Kimber is committed to the sustainable decentralization of design.
3DN: How did you discover additive manufacturing?
It started in college, what we call high school in the UK, where our product design teacher gave a class on manufacturing technologies and told us about 3D printing. I already had some experience with machining, so I knew the potential as soon as I heard about it and became hooked ever since. I helped out after class with the RepRap at the college and I wrote one of my papers on AM, entitled “What is the Future in Additive Manufacture?” Remarkably, my teenage estimations of the AM industry 10 years hence were pretty accurate. I bought my first 3D printer while at university; the Printrbot Simple in plywood. That was a terrible machine, compared to what is on the market today, but it was so exciting to send the first home axis command to that little thing and watch it come to life on my desk. I still get a buzz every time I send something to print and the machine starts moving – probably because I never expect it to actually work.
3DN: What is your current role and what is a typical day like for you?
My current role is as an industrial designer, but I would say I wear many hats. In my day job I work in a small, tightknit design team, where we develop customizations on our product lines, from slight configurations of size and finish right through to complete bespoke designs. Unlike other design disciplines, such as graphic or UX, where one might have an account manager who engages with the client, sets the brief for the team and manages design tasks, in this line of work we liaise directly with the clients. This means I’m on the phone talking with stakeholders daily.
There’s a lot of design documentation and version control that’s necessary, when issuing lots of technical drawings to fabricators, contractors and so on. I’m also a bit of an Excel warrior, looking at spreadsheets of product costings, technical calculations and production schedules, which can be a bit boring but it’s an essential part of the job.
Related to AM, we have numerous 3D printed components, which we outsource to print bureaus, so they need modelling, ordering and checking in when they arrive, ensuring they’re compliant and will work for the assembly team. In my own studio work, it’s a combination of commercial duties, marketing activities and wrangling with Grasshopper.
The most fun but challenging part of my day is watching tutorials on one screen while looking at a tangled mess of a Grasshopper file on the other and trying to think through how exactly I’m going to model the idea that I have. It can be frustrating, but ultimately learning how to overcome a problem and actually realise an idea is the most satisfying part of the work. Then at the end of the day, a chamomile tea is in order.
3DN: What qualifications and experience are required to work as an Industrial Designer?
Obtaining a role as an industrial designer generally necessitates a bachelor’s degree, and it’s common for individuals in the field to also pursue a master’s degree. Despite this educational path, entering the design industry through vocational training is feasible. Becoming an industrial designer involves mastering numerous technical skills and familiarizing oneself with standard industry software, which is often covered in reputable educational programs. However, these programs might not cover the nuances of managing conflicts between fabricators and clients or handling the day-to-day administrative tasks in a small business. Gaining practical work experience, even outside the field of design, is incredibly beneficial.
3DN: What are the biggest challenges you face?
For me, the most substantial challenges lie on the business aspect. While finding technical solutions aligns with my training, and creating innovative designs using additive manufacturing aligns with my passion, effectively communicating the benefits of additive manufacturing to stakeholders and customers, without resorting to technical jargon, proves to be exceptionally challenging.
It’s also been quite challenging to identify which design solutions will be commercially viable. A design consultancy might take a brief and go looking for which manufacturing approach best suits the design solution, but when your starting point is the manufacturing approach, in this case AM, it can be hard to translate the technical benefits of AM into tangible value for customers.
Let’s take customization for example. AM facilitates mass customization, which opens up amazing opportunities, but which products should be customized? Do customers want everything in their home to be totally personalized? It’s about finding the right fit between what the technology offers and what people need, then communicating that in a way that’s accessible. A hard feat for most engineers, myself included, who love to talk about the more technical aspects of the solution.
3DN: What advice would you give to someone hoping to work as an Industrial Designer using additive manufacturing?
Firstly, you should learn surface modelling software, like Grasshopper, Blender, Maya, CATIA, etc. It’s invaluable in AM, but at university you often only get taught parametric CAD. There’s plenty of free or highly affordable courses online, so just start whenever you can.
Another consideration to remember is that AM has its limitations. Yes, there is an incredible geometric freedom, but in the practical world of making functional products that reliably work for people, it’s simply not true that you can ‘print anything you can imagine’. I can certainly imagine designs that are not possible or appropriate to be 3D printed, so any designer using this technology should speak with their technicians, speak with the engineers and speak with the bureaus, to learn what can and can’t be done. You may just find an even better solution to your problem.
Additive manufacturing is not just a different manufacturing technology, it’s a different manufacturing category. That requires a shift of mindset. The way you go about solving problems changes, your constraints are different, as are the workflows. For example, AM allows for much greater geometric freedom, like biophilic design. The way you’d go about modelling, iterating and developing a biophilic design would be radically unlike a more mechanical design solution, from the software you use to the specifications you set for the process and the design documentation you produce.
But this shift in mindset goes further than how you design and make things. AM allows for distributed production, localized manufacturing and small batch scales. Now, we’re talking about systems thinking, changing the relationship between designers and consumers and challenging linear supply chains. So my advice would be to keep your mind open to new ideas as to the potential for the technology and start thinking systemically.
Curiosity and awareness of the limits of AM are key in the work of an industrial designer using AM.
Here you can find out more about AKD. What do you think of the role of an industrial designer in additive manufacturing? Let us know in a comment below or on our LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter pages! Don’t forget to sign up for our free weekly newsletter here for the latest 3D printing news straight to your inbox! You can also find all our videos on our YouTube channel.
